I do love the tile & color with your counter.

However if you want my truth, I'd have them rip it out and start over with a flat surface and all the tiles aligned accordingly.

This is my opinion as I am living in a new house where the 3 inch tile surrounding the bathtub & shower looks lkie yours -very much out of alignment. I hate looking at it. It annoys me no end. If I win the lottery it's all coming out!
So see I take my personal bathroom problem and vented at your tile.
If your like me, it'll annoy you. And you beautiful backsplash should only be admired.

The tulips are lovely.

The splash...not so much. I don't mind the wavy so much--you can pretend it's meant to be that way--but where two sheets meet, they GOTTA line up.

Beautiful pitcher, too.

Sorry about your tile. :(

I'm sorry to tell you this, but IMHO that slap-a** tile job is unacceptable. The white grout and tiny tiles make it even more noticeable. I would have him rip it out and consider using a different person. Tile laying is not an endeavor to be taken lightly, it takes a lot of practice to hone the skill.

Too bad you have to go through this, hope you resolve the issue.

Or you could install a large greenhouse and have tulips (lots of them needed here) year round. If hubby is OK with the tulip plan, his terrible tile plan might work.

Nope. That would be getting redone. Like nutbunch, the tile in our master bath shower is out of alignment. I try to ignore it but it constantly bothers me. Can't wait to replace it.

Thanks to all. And nutbunch, I guess your situation is exactly what I'm trying to avoid. Also, GREAT screen name!!

Love all your choices except the tile guy - it needs to be redone.

Wow, you're making me really grateful I didn't insist on a glass mosaic myself. I have a wavy plaster wall and my tile guy said not to do it - that it would end up looking like what you're showing up there. These are the *better* samples? Not so good.

Sorry. Love the tile itself - you have great taste!

I agree with the other posters. Your choices are impeccable - that tile is gorgeous! It's application - not so much.

Push for a re-do.

I would want a re-do, too...But not by the same person.

Oh man--love love love your choices. That install --whew--would NOT have the same guy try again.

charlikin, that's what underlayment was made for...you could put a 1/4" sheet of hardibacker or even easyboard and while you'd lose 1/4" of the depth, you'd gain absolute evenness.

Urgh, so sorry. But gaw-geous tile!! Definitely try again with someone with more tiling skill and/or a working level. ;-)

Also, his poor job might be a blessing in disguise, because I don't think that luan is a proper backing for tile, no matter how you try to level it. You'd likely have tile & grout cracking within months. Have someone else try it again, this time with a proper drywall or cement board substrate between the tile and the studs.

no way. These were supposed to be professionals doing it, not DIY! I'm sorry that this has been such a challenge. It will look great in the end - but have it redone!

flyleft: jinx!

Thanks for the feedback. Keep it coming. DH thinks this is a loaded post on my account. I thought I was being fair. As for the responses, I can't get past the great screen names....circuspeanut, I'm talkin' to you!!!

You really should not accept this tile work. The seam should not be obvious. This is outside the tolerances that can be allowed for tile work.

You should try to get in touch with Bill V or Mongoct over on the Bath website. They will give you expert advice.

A+ for artistic ability, D- for execution. Sorry, NY won't allow us to fail anyone:) Great tile selection, shoddy craftsmanship. I second the opinion to get another installer.

I agree. Get it redone (by someone else!) We have a herringbone slate inset over our cooktop -- done by one of the best tile guys (consensus of more than a few shops) in the area. When both the halogen and the heat (rear) hood lights are on (and ONLY then), you can see a light horizontal line, which is where the grout is ever-so-slightly wider between two sheets of the herringbone (there is also a slight depth difference which shows up in the downlighting). It's not a big deal and these are honestly the only lighting conditions when it's visible -- can't tell a thing in daylight. But it has bugged me NO END ever since it was finished. He'd already redone it once because he didn't like his first try, and by the time he'd finished the second time around, it was two days before Christmas and I just wanted my kitchen FINISHED.

But I wish, wish, WISH I'd insisted. While I don't notice it as MUCH, three years later, I DO still notice it. (What I DON'T do any more is point it out, unsolicited, to everyone who comes into the kitchen!)

And unless your tile guy did the job for free (which I doubt! :) then you're entitled to a proper job for your money.

Here's our problem backsplash ...

Good luck!

{{!gwi}}

Ack there's a big zipper across the middle!

Nah. It's got character, Ctlady, good character. Winkwink's is just messed up.

Not only is the tile screwed up, but the jerk has absolutely no idea of what he's doing. Tile CAN NOT be set over luan. No if's ands or buts about it. Not only will it delaminate, but the mahogany oils in the luan won't allow the thinset to get any kind of good bond. It just can't be done. Ship this jerk off and get someone who can do the work. I hope to hell you haven't paid him!

As for your husband, you can tell him I'm a contractor with just under 30 years full time under my belt. Regardless of what's said prior to my posting, I call em as I see em. This guy needs to go.

What a maroon.

What Bill Said !

Awful. Completely unacceptable. I would fire this guy and have someone competent fix it.

Your husband thinks this is LOADED?
OK, first photo, far right, four tiles down IT'S CROOKED! That right there is enough for me to say I AM NOT PAYING YOU until this one tile is fixed. But, add in all the rest of the tiles, that's enough for me to say give me all my money back or I am calling the contractor's board. It would be bad enough if you had hired some laborer off of cragislist or something, but he's a contractor?
Next!

(OK, winkwink--where's my bribe?)
Just kidding winkwink's husband! No bribes involved.
It really is awful!

Carla in Sac

LOL circuspeanut :)

OK. I did mine myself, and for the first time, and mine don't look like that. Please, I'd do that over in a heartbeat. This is supposed to be a pro! There is no question here!

It's a shame to spend money on a pro and have it look less than great. I'd certainly want to redo the job from the base- out. You will never be happy with it any other way. I was beginning to doubt about glass tile until I saw Nalcar's job. That is incredibly lovely! I especially like the grout color that blends slightly with the tile. Maybe that helps to soften the lines as well.

Nalcar - maybe winkwink can hire you! LOL You did a great job!

Winkwink - I hope you can find someone else to do the job right!

Have it redone. Hope you haven't paid him yet. Love the look. What is luan plywood?? I was going to put in tile similar and the tile guy said to use a tan grout. When he redoes it, could you suggest he uses a darker grout so it doesn't stand out as much?

Even "good" plywood is an unacceptable substrate for tile, and Luan is not even good plywood. It's almost a blessing that the guy did such a poor job of setting. It was doomed to be torn out eventually anyway. Sorry for your hassle.

My opinion - looks bad in the first pictures. Having a tougher time finding the offsets in the second last but I can find them. In the last, I really don't see the mis-alignment.

However, my reaction when I read your post also had more to do with amazement at installing tile on luan. Sounds like bad news to me and when Bill seconds that, well, game over. It ought to be redone. That said, I do think that you and your DH are also at fault about that - although not the tile experts, you are the homeowners and hence the invested party, and so ought to find out what the accepted mores are for a proper installation. If you tell the guy that you want it installed on a sub-standard substrate, it is too bad that he didn't tell you what constitutes standard practise but frankly, he does have an out.

Most tiles have installation recommendations - acceptable substrates, mortar to be used, trowel size etc. Did you not get anything like this for your tiles???

Long story short, I'd back the suggestion to have it redone but because of the technical installation element; not so much because the mosaic is an eyesore. As I mentioned, in the large picture I can only barely find the misalignments if I go seriously scouting around for them; else I don't see 'em.

ctlady, I agree, I see the zipper too but that is a beautiful backsplash. And a beautiful design beautifully put together. This mosaic stuff sounds hard!

Nalcar, that is gorgeous. From that distance, it looks perfect. Lovely grey, that.

That's worse than my tile job and I did mine myself, having never ever done tile before. Thankfully mine is natural slate and different levels so it wasn't supposed to be perfect. Have your DH look at my first timer's DIY and compare it to yours done "professionally" and see if that doesn't convince him! I think a glass mosaic like yours should be pretty straight and forgive me if I'm wrong, but I think your grout lines are a little bigger than most mosaics too, aren't they?

Thanks for all the help and the pics. Some really beautiful tile work here, zippers and all. DH and I are no longer speaking thanks to this mess. He doesn't want to deal with it....quite frankly, I think he enjoys mediocrity. Mindstorm - thanks for taking a close look. I specifically included the last pic because it is a decent portion of the wall and I really wanted an honest take on how it looks. As for saying we're responsible, that's just nonsense. We had agreed to pay this so-called professional VERY well and we were hardly looking for shortcuts. I actually broached the subject of the luan because it was a concern of mine. One thing DH and I do agree on is that we were misled by guy. After all, my husband, an attorney who handles criminal cases, would never assure someone he could handle an estate, because he can't and won't.

Tell hubby that my screen name is as funny as your tile job. ;-)

Seriously, it's not just the aesthetics, it's that he used the wrong substrate and even if he did a bang-up job, it wouldn't last long before disintegrating.

If DH really doesn't believe us, post your pix over on John Bridge's tile advice forum and watch the pros really take your guy's work apart. Bill was being gentle...

Call me nuts, but I think that would be a bad tile job on a perfectly flat substrate. I'm not sure you can blame the grout space irregularities solely on the backer material -- I think your installer is just all thumbs when it comes to small-format tiles. They're not easy, and when they're glass, with the backer paper covering them, that can be a real bear to get the groutlines straight between the mosaic sheets, and I think that's what's wrong. Not only would I have this ripped out, I'd have it redone by a real tiler, a tile-only guy, not some jack of all trades employee of the gc. I'm sure this makes you sick, and I hear you about the marriage stress. And your criminal defense atty hubby just feels that typical male inadequacy when he wants to make it better for you but can't do it with his own two hands.

Oh, I feel for you. Frankly, this is why I did my own tiling, because it's so tricky, and I will rip it out and replace tile a hundred times until it's right. Sadly, this so-called "professional" tile job makes me glad I did it myself. I am so sorry for you. I hope you get a satisfactory resolution. Take the guy to small claims if you don't get your $$ back.

Three Words: HORRIBLE TILE JOB

I'm so sorry. I agree with the other responses. I would absolutely have them tear it out and redo. That tile job is just not acceptable.

Beautiful tile though! Please let us know the outcome. :)

Um, did you even go actually SEE this guy's work before you hired him?

I ask (as gently as possible) because we hunted down some "best in the area" tile guys and an alarming number of them weren't up to (our) snuff. Obvious lippage, misaligned rows, varying levels of grout in the same joint, incredibly sloppy cuts, etc. Maybe they are the "best" compared to the competition, maybe I'm cursed with a "detail" eye, I don't know. But they weren't good.

Blame Bill if you want, but once you see a good tile job, avoiding these bozos get easier. (Oh yeah, and actually finding a good one gets dauntingly harder.) Once you see Bill's work - or any of the pros over at johnbridgedotcom - you won't have to wonder if your mosaic is passable. (Ask Bill for a pic of his hex bath. Sets the standard.)

All that said about the visual thing, you definitely absolutely should get a tile guy that knows not to use luan. (If Bill so speakth...)

And sadly, you need to know a LOT about the technical installation stuff. Or at least enough to weed out the bozos. I got nicked on this, with a guy who did a beautiful installation in my bath but "forgot" a step in the installation...and now I have no vapor barrier. So out it all comes. And he's suing us. (With docs from the manufacturer confirming our lack of vapor barrier, the suit doesn't worry me...just an annoying nuisance and waste of my limited time.)

There is no guarantee (unless you live in southern Maine), but you need to check check check on the people that are responsible for things that need to be both pretty AND functional.

Adding my voice to the chorus - that's a bad tile job. And it gets worse the further away you get. My one gripe with glass mosaics is that, installed poorly, they look like a pixilating TV picture. That's what your last photo reminds me of.

Definitely look at the work of any new tile guy before you sign a contract. My architect showed us a project from a guy he was recommending and it was horrible. Architect tried to tell me it was 'acceptable' because the tile was so difficult to work with and 'it comes out like that', but I called BS on that nonsense. A good tiler should be able to make any tile good.

Surely this forum has been the very best part of renovating a kitchen!! And, yes, I know....caveat emptor. I thank you all for your input and time. I will update as soon as I have the strength to move on this issue. As for now, I'm looking at my 14-year-old son's report card and wondering how he managed to get an 8 in gym. That's no typo. He actually got an 8. At least I don't have to worry about using his college $$ for tile!! Seems like I may be able to use it for whatever I want.

"caveat emptor" Well, yeah, a little bit. Okay, maybe more than a little bit. But aren't you wiser now? And maybe it is a good thing that this is a relatively small mess. (Our entire bath has to be ripped out. Underlayment and all.)

And your issue is very clear cut. That is actually a good thing. From what Bill said, it isn't just your opinion of how well the tile is aligned: your tile guy did it structurally unsound. As hard (and mentally exhausting) that is to hear, it is actually (in my opinion) a good thing, since your tile guy can't argue that you're being "picky."

Good luck with the "strength to move." It will come to you. If not now, then soon. Have faith in yourself that you will eventually rally. Maybe not today, but you'll live to fight this.

An 8? Out of?

I second stw's thoughts...blame Bill LOL

Really though, it's a horrible tile job. I've had jobs not as bad removed because of errors, but that job is terrible. Try to explain to DH about your kitchen value. Obviously you've put together a lovely new kitchen, which is great for resale value, but you took a very visual portion of the kitchen and basically wrote grafitti on it. So when you enter the kitchen to buy it...what will you see? The beautiful kitchen or the grafitti...when "F" is written on the wall...your eyes see that first.

This is the tile equivilent to "F" written on the wall of a gorgeous kitchen. It's really bad. In addition, it will likely fall off eventually due to the luan...sheesh what a dork.

I'd never use him again...I would let a good guy redo an error, but this guy went wrongg on so many levels (alignment, substraight, grout application, caulk application) that you're just going to be throwing good money after bad if you reuse him. I learned that the hard way, trust me, you don't want to let him anywhere near your walls aside from the removal process, and frankly, I wouldn't even allow him to do that in my home.

I have to ask...because your kitchen is so gorgeous in all other finish choices....why the shiny white grout? Is there a white element to the kitchen I'm missing??

"...and basically wrote graffiti on it."

That's a pretty accurate way to put it.

Ya know, the world has gotten a lot smaller now, with the internet, GardenWeb, etc. It is amazing to me that some of these goons haven't figured out that the homeowner doesn't just have to accept everything anymore. Information is available to the masses, and we can say knowledgeably that luan is stupid (or more artfully phrased). We can say for sure that tile can indeed be aligned properly. We can now access tile expertise from Maine and a thousand other places...wherever knowledge lives. (End diatribe.)

These idiots' world is shrinking down to the few people that don't bother to learn what's what.

(Now that I think about it, maybe this bozo tile guy should be the one to blame Bill.)

(And by the way, winks, I agree that you should find someone else to take a crack at this. And leave up the nasty part to show the prospective new guys what is unacceptable. We did that - instead of demoing immediately, especially tempting because I had time - and it was easy to tell who to weed out immediately: anyone who didn't think the problem was a big deal. Next. So maybe leave up your yucky installlation while you interview prospective new tile guys.)

Wow. This forum gets better every time. stw954....your advice to leave it up for the next guy/s to look at is TERRIFIC. I'm not sure I would have thought of that. THank you! And igloochic...i think the flash altered the colors a bit, as the white grout is really ivory and my countertop (caesarstone baja) is more to the yellow as well. All of my trim is white in my house and while it may sound weird, it works. All that is except the crazy backsplash!!

I second stw's thoughts...blame Bill LOL

Not a problem-- I'm used to it!! :-)

(just ask my wife!!)

wink, it must be the screen. You had such wonderful choices that the bright white threw me off :) Monitors do that so I do like to ask before I say "What the heck were you thinking?" heh heh

It actually looks like he used tan colored caulk on a white grout. And it looks like he grouted at the base and covered that with caulk...if that's the case, you'll want to point that out as a major no no to your next guy. You never grout right to the counters. At any change of plane you need flex or you'll end up with cracked grout, or worse, cracked tile. (Bill will back me up on this since he taught me this).

(Bill will back me up on this since he taught me this).

Who, me? Nahhhhhhh, I don't know NUTTIN!!

:-)

(she's right-- I just didn't wanna TELL her!)

thanks again everyone...so helpful....no surprise that the contractor is suddenly not reachable....but as DH says (he's an optimist, if not a pragmatist)...living well is the best revenge and therefore, I am enjoying conan's last show and signing off on my kitchen crapper for a couple of days!

"...and basically wrote graffiti on it."

That's a pretty accurate way to put it.

Ya know, the world has gotten a lot smaller now, with the internet, GardenWeb, etc. It is amazing to me that some of these goons haven't figured out that the homeowner doesn't just have to accept everything anymore. Information is available to the masses, and we can say knowledgeably that luan is stupid (or more artfully phrased). We can say for sure that tile can indeed be aligned properly. We can now access tile expertise from Maine and a thousand other places...wherever knowledge lives. (End diatribe.)

These idiots' world is shrinking down to the few people that don't bother to learn what's what.

(Now that I think about it, maybe this bozo tile guy should be the one to blame Bill.)

(And by the way, winks, I agree that you should find someone else to take a crack at this. And leave up the nasty part to show the prospective new guys what is unacceptable. We did that - instead of demoing immediately, especially tempting because I had time - and it was easy to tell who to weed out immediately: anyone who didn't think the problem was a big deal. Next. So maybe leave up your yucky installlation while you interview prospective new tile guys.)

(Now that I think about it, maybe this bozo tile guy should be the one to blame Bill.)

I'll take that blame. Hell, that's what I'm here for!

2009......................